Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Mimi Hoang
Hi Dr. Mimi, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m ethnically Chinese and Vietnamese and was born in Hanoi, Vietnam in the late 70s after the Vietnam War ended, and so when I was very young, my family and I became refugees to escape the Communist takeover. We came to the U.S. when I was 3 years old and I grew up in an immigrant household before the internet era and thus had very little support in figuring out my sexuality. I didn’t even hear of the word “bisexual” until I went to college at UCLA. That’s when I started my coming out journey, found a wonderful therapist in the counseling center, who connected me to an amazing bisexual mentor, and came out as bisexual my senior year. Soon after that, my LGBTQ community leadership took off when I co-founded the first bisexual student group at UCLA, called Fluid at UCLA, and in 2006 after I finished my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Alliant International University-Los Angeles, I co-founded amBi, LA’s Bisexual Social Community, and then in 2008 I co-founded the Los Angeles Bi+ Task Force (LABFT), a non-profit organization promoting education, advocacy, and cultural enrichment for the bisexual, pansexual, and fluid community (AKA bi+) in Greater Los Angeles. Along this journey I also became a clinical psychologist because I wanted to help people, but I focused on multicultural psychology so that I could help the LGBTQ community, BIPOC community, and the intersections thereof since they are my communities and face marginalization and discrimination. So I was very passionate about working at settings where I could help these communities such as at community mental health clinics and university counseling centers with young adults who were exploring their identities and I ran groups for LGBTQ+ people, and Asian American women, and did lots of presentations on bisexuality while publishing my dissertation on women’s bisexual identity in the Journal of Bisexuality and so was asked to speak at many conferences, including the first White House Bisexual Community Roundtable in 2013 during the Obama Administration which was the first time that the White House heard our specific needs and concerns. And that’s where we all realized the staggering physical and mental health disparities facing the bi+ community. So I took this back with me and through LABTF spearheaded a needs assessment for the bi+ community in Greater LA in 2014. And that’s when I “married” my community organizing work with my clinical work and began to focus more intently on bi+ affirmative mental health, something that wasn’t getting much attention in the bigger discussion about LGBTQ mental health. And I started doing life coaching to be able to reach a bigger audience and created my “Bi on Life” self-empowerment series for bi+ individuals in 2018 and later “part 2, which was my “Bi on Love” healthy relationship skills series for bi+ individuals. So I have helped build 3 bi+ organizations in Los Angeles from the ground up, and though I’m no longer a part of the leadership for amBi, both amBi and LABTF are still going strong. As a matter of fact, I helped co-chair LABTF’s inaugural B+ Well: A Wellness Conference for the Bisexual, Pansexual, and Fluid Community in 2024 and am co-chairing B+ Well 2025 which is another reflection of the merging of all the hats that I wear.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was definitely not a smooth road at all. Being a woman, a person of color, an immigrant, I really had very little role-modeling or support to figure out what being queer was so I had a lot of internalized shame about being bisexual. And the bi+ community faces hate from gay and straight, so even though I felt much better about myself after I came out in college, I began to face rejection and hostility from friends, dates, and family. People accused me of being “confused” or just stopped talking to me. And in the dating world, there would be fetishizing from straight men and distrust from lesbian women. And grassroots community organizing is never easy because of lack of funding but with the bi+ community it was especially challenging because of bi erasure and invisibility, and it was difficult keeping group members because bi+ people were so closeted and even hiding from their partners that they were going to bi groups. And in the early 2000s, it was still OK to be openly biphobic. So when I organized the first bisexual contingent at LA Pride 2008, we actually got some boos and jeers from the sidelines. But we persisted, and we did it again the next year, and again the next year, and became bigger and more confident, and nowadays when we march at Pride, we only get cheers and we see young people waving bi pride flags which makes me so proud. So it was very fortunate that I had found a bi+ affirmative therapist, a bisexual mentor, and my community (which I built) to help me weather through those ups and downs. And now I am a bi+ affirmative therapist and mentor myself helping others with their coming out journeys, which is very rewarding to me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Regarding my clinical work, I recently opened a private practice specializing in LGBTQ+ and BIPOC identity, healthy relationships, and social anxiety and it’s been wonderful to be able to provide culturally sensitive services to people who are searching for a therapist who can really relate and understand. I continually work from a sex-positive, anti-racist, and decolonizing framework which to me is the true definition of being a therapist who celebrates cultural diversity in the modern age. I love training new LGBTQ affirmative therapists and I do that through my role as the Program Coordinator of the LGBTQIA+ Affirmative Therapy Center at Airport Marina Counseling Service which provides sliding scale individual, couples/relationship, and group psychotherapy in the LAX/Westchester area. And I also am a professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at USC. “Outside of the office,” I still actively volunteer my time as a Board Member of LABTF, and am serving as the Chair-Elect of the California Psychological Association’s Division VII, and on the Expert Review Board of Fluid Health, an online sexual health platform for queer and gender non-conforming individuals. So I’m a bit different than other therapists and other psychologists in that not only am I a clinician but I also supervise, teach, and do advocacy work pro-bono. Someone once told me that multicultural psychologists are like the “social workers of the psychologists” and I’m proud to see myself that way, as someone who not only works with the individual in the office but someone who works with communities out there in the real world too. I’ve been honored to receive recognition for my 25+ years of advocacy, like when my queer activism was documented in in the historical exhibit “Lesbians to Watch Out For: 90’s Queer L.A. Activism” at Plummer Park and Cal State LA. I’ve even been called the “Bi Godmother” because of all the groups and communities I’ve nurtured, and that simply warms my heart.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
I’ve learned so many lessons from so many great mentors but some things that stand out are that “Your identity is not up for debate” – because being gay, bi, pan, queer, trans, or non-binary is who you are, it’s inside you, so no one else can argue or debate that because they are not in your head or your heart. And “Build your social village” – it’s hard to come out alone and no one should have to do that. It’s so important to find others to help normalize and validate your experience but also to have good social support and possibly to help advocate for you in case you need it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.drmimihoang.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmimihoang
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drmimihoang
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmimihoang/
Image Credits
Shon Hoang Photography
